Two men dressed in black were seen leaving the scene

A petrol station has been left with a smashed window and damaged shop front following a burglary. Police were called to the BP garage on Station Road in Bluntisham at 5.10am this morning (September 16).

Officers found damage to the front of the shop where a window had been smashed. E-cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol were taken, but the exact amount is unknown. Two men dressed in black were seen on CCTV leaving the scene in a silver Honda Jazz and headed towards Earith.

No arrests have been made but an investigation is ongoing.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: “Anyone with information or anyone who has CCTV or dashcam footage which may assist the investigation, is asked to report online www.cambs.police.uk quoting reference 35/71638/26 or call 101. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org.”

Billionaire sports executive Robert Kraft and musician Ed Sheeran have each pledged $2 million toward humanitarian relief for Palestinians, following a public challenge from rapper Macklemore.

The financial commitments arrive in the wake of a controversy that began earlier in the month when Macklemore delivered a political speech and chanted “Free Palestine” on stage during a concert at MetLife Stadium, later leading to his removal from Sheeran’s Loop Tour. The rapper asserted that Kraft had influenced other venue proprietors to block him from performing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Macklemore announced via social media that he would distribute $1 million in net earnings generated from his appearances on Sheeran’s tour to organizations aiding Palestinians, while challenging Kraft to match the sum.

“With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours, I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom,” Macklemore wrote on Instagram. “I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people. And I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation.

“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.”

In response, Kraft issued a statement published to the official Gillette Stadium X account, outlining that Sheeran had contacted him prior to the rapper’s public challenge.

“I have dedicated much of my life to building bridges between all people,” Kraft wrote. “I believe deeply that all lives are worth protecting. Earlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis.

“Ed now plans to reach out to other venue owners and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.”

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All other supporting acts on Sheeran’s tour quit after Macklemore was dropped. Danish band Lukas Graham, Irish singer Aaron Rowe, American singer Finneas and Irish folk band Beoga made their announcements roughly within an hour of each other Tuesday, as reported by the Associated Press.

Earlier the same day, Sheeran had posted his own statement explaining Macklemore’s departure.

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” Sheeran wrote in an Instagram post. “Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.”

In another slide of the post, he added: “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.”

The warning sign of leatherjacket infestation

How to prevent leatherjackets from destroying your lawn

Setting out the EU’s political and policy priorities for the year ahead, von der Leyen also proposed the formation of a European Security Council, which would include the UK and Ukraine, amid an ongoing threat to the continent from Russia.

“For a long time, we have discussed a leaders’ format focused on the security of our continent, with partners like Canada, Norway, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and others involved,” she said in the wide-ranging address.

“This is even more urgent now, given the nature and scale of the risks at play. This is why we will set out our ideas to make a European Security Council a reality.”

Calls for such a body have been growing since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It was initially a French-German conception but more countries have shown support, particularly as Trump has questioned the Nato military alliance. Other nations worry such a council could unhelpfully rival Nato.

Von der Leyen said the EU was “strengthening our work with Nato” and that expanded defence spending would be “fully aligned” with the alliance.

But at the core of such a security council would be the ability to trigger an emergency meeting if one member felt under threat, similar to Nato’s Article 4.

The EU chief said it would be a “mechanism to flank” Article 4, a term that could be interpreted as complementing Nato functions or – if taken in a military context – bypassing them.

Alongside global threats, von der Leyen also said many European families were worried about the cost of living, and the “dizzying speed of change” of technology and its impacts on jobs and society.

Other proposals included inviting the world’s largest AI labs for talks on how to support industry efforts to pace the frontier, as well as slashing bureaucracy for businesses in the EU.

Plans to curb social media use among children, including banning platforms for under 13s, were also put forward. Under the proposal, children aged 13 to 15 would only be able to set up social media accounts which are supervised by parents.

A new emergency tool to help countries better deal with mass migration movements following the deadly influx of migrants to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July would also be outlined.

The pledge chimes with the message of European politicians on the right and hard right who have gained support in recent years for proposing a tougher approach.

Some of them called the mass attempt to enter the EU through Ceuta an “invasion” and argued asylum rules should be suspended to deal with such a crisis.

Von der Leyen said the new emergency tool would “only be triggered under a strictly defined set of criteria” and for a specific period of time, and that fundamental rights would be protected.

Human rights groups worry such a move would see vulnerable people, including women and children, turned back and denied the protection afforded to them under international law.

When The Great British Bake Off returns for its 17th series this autumn, viewers will be greeted by a new judge – Nigella Lawson. There are connections between Lawson’s domestic goddess persona and the world of Bake Off, which make her a logical choice for the show’s new judge.

For more than two decades, Lawson has occupied a distinctive place in British food culture. Since the publication of How to Be a Domestic Goddess (2000), she has cultivated a tongue-in-cheek persona that reimagined domestic labour for the noughties generation.

The title of Lawson’s cookbook was deliberately provocative. At a time when domesticity was often framed as something women should escape, Lawson embraced and reinvented its language. Her domestic goddess persona was neither the dutiful housewife nor the professional celebrity chef. Instead, she offered a mode of culinary femininity that was sensual, confessional and self-consciously performative.

As I argue in my new book, Women, Food, Performance: The Tyranny of the Domestic Goddess, the persona Lawson popularised remains a defining cultural figure through which the fantasies and contradictions of food, femininity and domesticity are performed and negotiated.

Cooking, in Lawson’s world, is less about obligation than pleasure, transforming the kitchen into a space of self-expression.

This is where the first alignment with Bake Off emerges. Although framed as a competition, the programme has become a key stage for telling stories about family, heritage, local identity and nationhood, generating powerful narratives of togetherness and belonging.

Since 2010, Bake Off has helped revive interest in home baking in Britain, positioning baking as a meaningful social and cultural practice. Audiences invest in contestants’ journeys and discuss weekly challenges and disasters. It not only represents community through baking but also actively produces it through shared spectatorship.

Who can be a ‘star’ baker?

A second alignment lies in their shared celebration of amateurism.

Lawson has always identified as a home cook rather than a professional chef. Through autobiographical storytelling and stylised television aesthetics, she celebrates everyday pleasures and amateur culinary creativity, inviting audiences into an aspirational yet accessible world.

Similarly, Bake Off emphasises encouragement, camaraderie and amateur expertise. Contestants are valued not only for their technical skill but also for qualities associated with home baking: patience, generosity and care. The programme’s enduring appeal rests on the idea that ordinary people can create extraordinary things, a vision central to Lawson’s construction of the amateur cook.

Yet, despite its reputation for kindness and camaraderie, Bake Off is also a place where particular baking identities are produced, judged and legitimised. Contestants perform their skills before judges whose authority rests on established ideals of expertise, tradition and taste.

Women contestants have frequently faced scrutiny of their appearance, competence and emotions. This was reflected in the experiences of former contestants Ruby Tandoh and Nadiya Hussain, who have spoken publicly about sexism, racism and the heightened scrutiny surrounding their participation in the programme. The tent, then, is not simply a celebration of baking but a space where the figure of the star baker, and who gets to embody it, is continually negotiated.

Lawson’s presence brings these questions into sharper focus. Through television, cookery writing and the domestic goddess persona, she has spent over 25 years shaping understandings of food and femininity. Her significance lies in her ability to connect food to the intimate textures of everyday life. She does this by using cooking to organise and aestheticise the messy realities of pleasure, care, family and domesticity into a coherent and aspirational way of living.

Tongue-in-cheek cooking

Perhaps the strongest connection between Lawson and Bake Off is their investment in domestic fantasy. Neither presents baking as an obligatory feminine duty. Instead, they turn it into a pleasurable performance, inviting audiences to enjoy idealised visions of home, tradition and community while recognising their artifice.

Their shared irony lies in presenting baking as both sincere and self-conscious. It is a source of genuine comfort and connection, but also a carefully staged cultural performance. This sensibility can be seen in their similar use of humour and innuendo. Whether through Lawson’s flirtatious descriptions of food or Bake Off’s famous “soggy bottoms”, both cultivate an affectionate, self-aware approach to domesticity that prevents baking from becoming too earnest or moralising.

Twenty-six years after How to Be a Domestic Goddess, the “domestic goddess” figure that Lawson popularised continues to resonate because it captures a persistent cultural contradiction. Domesticity remains a powerful source of pleasure and creativity even as its relationship to gender remains contested. Both Lawson and Bake Off thrive by inhabiting this tension, inviting us to enjoy the comforts of home and tradition while acknowledging that they are also cultural performances.

Lawson remains influential because she embodies a form of femininity that is modern and traditional, glamorous and domestic, privileged and somehow also ordinary. Her arrival in the Bake Off tent speaks to her ability to make a highly classed and culturally privileged version of British femininity feel warm, intimate and attainable.

Beneath the cakes, bunting and good humour lies an ongoing negotiation over who gets to represent culinary culture, what expertise matters and how domestic life is valued, desired and performed.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Lena Dunham, creator of the hit TV series Girls, has welcomed her first child with husband Luis Felber via a surrogate.

The writer and actress announced the birth of her daughter in an op-ed published by Vogue on Wednesday, where she wrote she was “bashful and dizzy with joy”.

Dunham, 40, has spoken publicly about her struggles with fertility and chronic illness, and grief around her dreams of motherhood after undergoing a hysterectomy when she was 31 years old.

Of meeting her surrogate, she wrote in Vogue: “While I’ve been known to make friends quickly – airport terminals, veterinary offices – ​this was the quickest leap from first coffee to gynecological procedure I’d ever done.”

In the op-ed, Dunham wrote about the moment she met her daughter, who she said announced herself “13 days late, in the face of a solar eclipse and a meteor shower”.

“I sat on a hospital bed, between the legs of a woman I hadn’t known a year ago, waiting for a glimpse of this person who I had been waiting for with something related to patience, but also none at all,” she wrote.

“I forgot to look down until I heard our baby’s cry. I saw her face, gasping just as she did. Her eyes, wide and unfocused, taking in the light and shadow, blinking rapidly.”

Dunham has written extensively about her experience with endometriosis and its impact on her plans to have a family.

“The moment I lost my fertility, I started searching for a baby,” she said in her memoir Famesick, which was published in April 2026.

Detailing the gruelling process of extracting her eggs during the pandemic, Dunham said would lie on her couch “one day obsessed with adoption and another, dying to locate a surrogate – one day sure I’d be fine if I never had children, and the next convinced my life had been a waste”.

Years later, in June 2025, Dunham told the Times that she and Felber were “in the process of expanding our family in new ways”, but refused to be drawn on how.

“I want to safely meet our children and then figure out how to talk about it,” she told the paper.

In an earlier essay for Harper’s Magazine, in 2020, the writer said it is ironic that “knowing I cannot have a child – my ability to accept that and move on – may be the only reason I deserve to be anyone’s parent at all. I think I finally have something to teach somebody.”

The Go Well Trail is designed to encourage people of all ages to get active in South Park through a smartphone-led experience.

Participants will follow a route guided by QR codes, answering questions and learning new facts to earn points.

Matt Roche, cabinet member for health and housing at Darlington Borough Council, said: “This trail is a really fun way to get people who already use the park, and new visitors, to move more and enjoy their surroundings.

“One of our ambitions laid out in the Council Plan is to help our residents live well and stay healthy and initiatives like this really help achieve that goal.”

People can take part alone, with friends and family, or through a school, community group or organisation.

Each group will appear as a registration option, allowing members to contribute to a team score while competing individually.

Mr Roche said: “The trails are suitable for all ages and I love the idea that community groups can personalise their own trails and make a really unique activity for their members.”

Schools and community groups are also being invited to create their own personalised trails by submitting questions for members to answer.

The YMCA-backed scheme runs from September 19 to November 14.

If it proves successful, the trail could be introduced in other parks across the town.

To register, people can scan one of the QR codes displayed on posters around the park, or visit the South Park page on the Darlington Borough Council Website. 

Alternatively, Community groups can get involved by emailing Marti Gray (Marti.Gray@darlington.gov.uk) or Sean O’Connell (Sean.O’Connell@darlington.gov.uk).

A Brazilian influencer has died at age 22, just weeks after she had breast reduction surgery.

Duda Alves, whose real name is Maria Eduarda Alves, had racked up more than 762,000 followers on TikTok by sharing comedic videos venting about everything that annoyed her, and had become known online as ‘the girl who hates everything.’

Fellow TikTok star Clarissa Pavie confirmed her death by sharing an emotional tribute on Sunday.

‘What hurts me the most is knowing that you’ll never read this, but I’m comforted knowing that it’s from the heart,’ she wrote, alongside an array of photos of them together.

‘I have never lost a friend before, [let alone] one of my best friends. Some know her as the little girl who hates everything and everyone. Well, for me it’s different.

‘For those who never had a chance to meet Duda for real, I’m sorry! She wasn’t just light, she was a calm authenticity, with a hint of acid humor. Made in God’s perfect measures and proportions.’

Pavie went on to brand Alves as the ‘most fair and kind person she ever met.’

‘Her inner beauty was so extravagant,’ Pavie continued. ‘What a privilege it was to have been your friend in this life. 

Alves, whose real name is Maria Eduarda Alves, had racked up more than 762,000 followers on TikTok by sharing comedic videos venting about everything that annoyed her, and had become known online as ‘the girl who hates everything’

‘What a privilege it was to be able to share a few years of my life by your side, to follow your phases, your evolution and to be able to accumulate so many beautiful memories that will be eternal, just like you. 

‘Thank you for changing my life and holding me when I needed you. Eternally your baby girl. I love you forever and ever.’ 

Weeks before her passing, Alves posted about undergoing breast reduction surgery.

According to The Sun, local police are investigating her death but ‘authorities have not established any link between the procedure and her death,’ the outlet said.

An official cause of death has not yet been revealed. 

Her last video was shared on September 10 and featured her discussing some of the negative comments she received after the procedure.

It comes weeks after fellow Brazilian influencer Marta Kelly died at age 33 following massive cosmetic surgery.

Kelly had gained over 500,000 followers across her TikTok and Instagram accounts, where she often shared fashion-based content and documented her life as a mom-of-three. 

According to The Sun, local police are investigating her death but ‘authorities have not established any link between the procedure and her death,’ the outlet said

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Fellow TikTok star Clarissa Pavie confirmed her death by sharing an emotional tribute on Sunday, branding her friend the ‘most fair and kind person she ever met’

Her husband, Marcus Vinicius, shared the news of her tragic death in an Instagram post in late August.

In a lengthy message, Vinicius said that Kelly had ‘lost the battle’ after ‘fighting until the last moment with all the strength she had.’

‘Yeah, people… WE HAVE LOST THE BATTLE,’ he wrote in Portuguese.

‘Still very hard to write these words. I don’t think any sentence could explain the amount of pain I’m feeling right now.

‘Marta was the love of my life. My best friend, my partner, the best wife I could ever ask for and a great mother to our kids.

‘She fought until the last moment. She fought with all the strength she had.’

Vinicius did not share details surrounding the circumstances of Kelly’s passing and her cause of death has not been revealed.

According to reports, she had a ‘three-in-one’ procedure on August 12, which included liposuction, breast implants and a tummy tuck.

She was reportedly discharged one day after the surgery but returned to the hospital on August 14 when she started feeling sick; she died on August 17.

Lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs are seeking to be relieved as counsel for the incarcerated music mogul in his defamation case against multiple parties, alleging the rapper has failed to render payment for six months.  

In court documents obtained by The Daily Mail, the law firm Sher Tremonte LLP filed a motion requesting for leave to withdraw as Combs’s counsel in his lawsuit against Courtney Burgess, Ariel Mitchell, and NewsNation’s parent company Nexstar Media Inc. 

Attorney Michael Tremonte, a partner at the law firm, alleged Combs is in ‘substantial arrears in paying’ for their work and has made representation ‘unreasonably difficult’ due to his ‘lack of cooperation.’

Tremonte has asked that the court ‘grant the instant motion to withdraw’ as lawyers for Combs.

Through a representative, Combs said he was changing lawyers after being overcharged by the firm – a claim Tremonte called ‘simply false.’ 

‘Mr. Combs is in substantial arrears in paying Sher Tremonte’s legal fees,’ the attorney wrote wrote in legal documents seeking withdrawal. ‘For many months, while Sher Tremonte has been rendering legal services, Mr. Combs has not remitted any payment for the substantial balance of attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses incurred.’

Tremonte said the rapper has not paid the firm for services ‘for over six months,’ causing an ‘unreasonable financial burden’ due to the ‘magnitude of past due balances’ and ‘volume of work.’

Further, the attorney claims they have had a ‘total breakdown in cooperation and communication’ with Diddy, 

‘In addition to Mr. Combs’s refusal to pay… Mr. Combs has declined to make himself available for timely, substantive, and direct communications about his cases for over four months,’ Tremonte wrote in legal docs. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to a representative for Combs and his lawyer for comment. 

A representative for Diddy responded to the claims with a quote from the rapper, who is currently behind bars after he was convicted on two prostitution charges last year. 

‘I made the decision to switch lawyers because I won’t let anyone take advantage of me by overcharging me and running up bills that were never approved,’ Diddy, through his representative Juda Engelmayer, said in a statement provided to The Daily Mail. 

‘This is strictly a business matter, and any talk about unpaid fees is just part of our dispute over those unapproved charges,’ he added. 

Engelmayer, on behalf of Diddy’s lawyer Jonathan Davis, further added:  ‘Jonathan Davis, Mr. Combs’s civil litigator for 33 years, has been representing him and his companies in lawsuits in multiple states since his arrest in 2024, and has encountered no resistance from the client in defending him. 

Attorney Michael Tremonte, a partner at the law firm Sher Tremonte LLP, claimed the rapper had filed to pay them for their legal services for six months. Above, in 2016

Through a representative, Combs told The Daily Mail he was changing lawyers after being overcharged by the firm – a claim Tremonte called ‘simply false’

‘The complications of representing an incarcerated client are always difficult, but never insurmountable. Mr. Davis said that he “continues to defend Mr. Combs undaunted because he is confident the truth will be exposed” and that his client will be vindicated.’ 

Engelmayer followed up with: ‘At the appropriate time, Jonathan Davis and his firm will be represent Mr. Combs in his libel suit against NewsNation.’ 

Tremonte denied Combs’s claims in a statement to The Daily Mail.  

‘We represented Mr. Combs zealously and very efficiently under challenging circumstances. 

‘As stated in our court filings, we are withdrawing from representing him because he has not paid his long-overdue invoices and has become uncooperative. Any suggestion that we overcharged him is simply false.’ 

Diddy is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence following a widely publicized trial last year.  

A jury found Diddy guilty of two counts of transporting prostitutes across state lines for the purpose of sex at his 2025 federal trial. He was acquitted by the jury on the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.

A judge sentenced the rapper to four years and two months in prison as the sentence began in October 2025.

Diddy’s release date has moved a number of times since he started serving his 50-month sentence, after his conviction on two prostitution charges back in October 2025.

He was originally set to be released in the summer before the date moved up to April, then February, then January and now back to February.

It was revealed on Tuesday that JJ Gabriel wants to leave Man United and Michael Carrick was asked to give his thoughts on the situation after the defeat to Brighton.

Michael Carrick said “the situation is what it is” when asked to give his thoughts on the news JJ Gabriel wants to leave Old Trafford.

It was revealed on Tuesday that teenage sensation Gabriel had decided he wanted out of the club. Gabriel looked set to become United’s youngest ever debutant with the Carabao Cup third round earmarked as a chance for a possible debut, but those plans were scrapped when it became apparent he wanted to leave the club.

United are understood to be fearful that Gabriel could walk away from the club on his 16th birthday next month. There are concerns that United will not be able to stop Gabriel from leaving on October 6 and signing for an overseas club, using his Irish passport to circumvent rules that normally afford United greater protection.

Carrick was asked about the situation after his side’s dire 3-2 loss to Brighton. “We have to be a little bit careful on that one. He’s a 15-year-old boy. It’s more about the welfare, the care and the attention of JJ as a child really,” Carrick told Sky Sports. “He’s certainly a young man. The situation is what it is, but we have to be a little bit careful about the exposure and how we jump on that.”

One youngster who was handed a chance against Brighton was Shea Lacey. The 19-year-old scored his first competitive goal for United, opening the scoring with a neat left-footed effort, but even after Mason Mount added a second United were unable to progress to the next round of the Carabao Cup.

Nevertheless, Carrick was delighted with Lacey’s showing. “I couldn’t expect any more from Shea as a younger player starting the game. That’s what he’s good at, that’s what he’s done all the way through the age groups,” he said.

“I’ve seen it so many times, so for him to come onto the stage and do that is a big plus. It was a great moment at that time of the game and I thought his performance in general was pretty good. He can be pleased with his night. It’s a big night for him, and his performance and his goal is a big plus for him.”